• Aram Khachaturian's famous ballet, Spartacus, was first produced for the Kirov Theatre in Leningrad in 1956 and choreographed several times until Yuri Grigorovich’s 1968 version for the Bolshoi Ballet. It in was this version that Spartacus achieved worldwide success and this version forms the basis for the present CD recording.

• This complete recording is performed by the Rias Chamber Choir, Deutsches Symphony Orchestra Berlin and conducted by Michail Jurowski.

• Spartacus was once hailed as the most successful ballet since Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. Khachaturian’s music is conventional and catchy, so much so the BBC chose the Adagio from Act 3 of his ballet as the title music for the BBC drama The Onedin Line.